The Oklahoma City Thunder looked like one of the best teams in the NBA to start the season, but they are already at an interesting crossroads. Before the season even started, recently signed center Isaiah Hartenstein was injured and out for an extended period. Last night in a loss to the Golden State Warriors, one of the Thunder’s best young players, Chet Holmgren, suffered a scary injury last night and will be out for eight to 10 weeks. If he is out for 10 weeks, that would mean a late January return for Holmgren. The Thunder are a great team, but they don’t have their two best big men. Will they wait for Hartenstein to return and just roll with what they have, or can they look to the trade market to try to fill the void?

When they do look at the trade market, there is one team that has a surplus of centers and that is the Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks have Clint Capela, Onyeka Okongwu and Larry Nance on the roster and while Nance can play the four, the Hawks have had him play center this year and he has mainly been used when Okongwu has missed games. Both Capela and Nance are expiring contracts (Nance is owed 11.2 million this year and Capela is owed 22.3 million this year) and both could be moved this year as the Hawks continue to reshape their roster. It would be wise for the Hawks to move Nance and/or Capela this year to get something in return, and it wouldn’t be surprising if the Thunder want to target one of them, with Nance making the most sense by far. The Thunder like to play a five-out style, where anyone can shoot and dribble and handle the ball, and that doesn’t suit Capela’s game. Nance is a good shooter and while his defense isn’t super strong, the rest of the Thunder team could mask that. Nance is shooting 70% from the field and 69% from three this season. He played in six of the Hawks 11 games this season.

Now the Thunder can just wait for Hartenstein to return. However, this team is aiming to be the best player in the Western Conference and there is always a chance that Holmgren will take longer to return from his injury. Another thing Oklahoma City needs to consider is what if Hartenstein gets injured again. It makes a lot of sense for the Thunder to consider introducing another option.

However, what would a transaction look like? Obviously the Thunder aren’t going to overpay to land Nance, but the Hawks aren’t going to just give him away. He is a useful player and the Hawks are in no rush to get a deal done right now. They could hold on to Nance until the trade deadline in February to see if they can get a better deal. Trades are rare in November, even if they are meaningful.

Would the Thunder be willing to make a deal with Kenrich Williams? Williams would provide the Hawks with a backup power forward, something they don’t really have on the roster, and he provides versatility and length, something the Hawks have added to their roster. A 40% three-point shooter last year, Williams is a solid defender who simply doesn’t have an option to get minutes on the Thunder’s loaded roster. That would make sense for the Hawks, but is Williams enough? Don’t know.

I doubt anything will happen anytime soon, but the Thunder are in an interesting position and I wouldn’t be surprised if they at least explored the idea of ​​adding Nance.

Additional links:

Three reasons why the Atlanta Hawks can qualify for the knockout round of the NBA Cup

NBA analyst reveals what the Atlanta Hawks’ biggest fear should be for the remainder of this season

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